If you were searching for a book that will make you think and give you food for thought, then "The Metamorphosis" is what you're looking for. I can clearly see why this book has been so widely talked about and why there have been so many different interpretations and correlations put into this story over the years.
Gregor Samsa, the main character of the book, awakes from a bad dream, into a mad nightmare, as he has overnight transformed into a big, hideous bug. His first thought upon finding out he's a beetle is how he's going to miss work and this tells you, I think, all you need to know about him. His job and contribution to his family have become the very essence of his character, they have come to defy him to the point where he can't even imagine himself outside of it, even if the whole world turned upside down.
Throughout the story, he realizes just how insignificant he is - leading the reader to also realize how insignificant we all, ultimately, are in the greater scheme of things. As a bug, he's no longer the backbone of his family, its most important member, instead, he has been swept aside, forgotten, and has now become a burden, while the family adapts, finds new means of survival and life continues as it always must.
"The Metamorphosis" is also a metaphor that demonstrates how little, insignificant, and ugly society can make you feel if you are different, and how horribly it will treat you if you don't fit in - not much differently than Gregor's family makes him feel once he doesn't fit anymore. Gregor's family works as a metaphor for the society and this book manages to paint a brutal depiction of them, especially in their state of tremendous turmoil. The truths within the story are all the more obvious by the absurdist, dark humor in Kafka's work, which derives from his self-sarcasm.
The narration is slow and repetitive but not in a negative way. This style of narration perfectly fits the story, as it outlines the story's nature and highlights the surreal dimension of Gregor's condition and his mental state as well. This story probably couldn't have been told any other way. The immobility to which he has been forced through his condition nails us - and the narration - to the ground, making it as slow and excruciating as his first steps in his new condition as a bug. The language is simple and accessible, with a good touch of irony.
The ending is pretty sad. It leaves you with no answers or explanations, it instead lets you draw your own conclusions and lessons from the story. Gregor’s family, and Gregor, cannot stop what is happening. They just have to go on with it and hope to make it through to the other side. Forced into a situation we cannot control, we perish. Such is life.
The "Metamorphosis" is surreal, inexplicable, bewildering, and unusual, yet utterly compelling. It opens several doors of reflection on different themes such as dependence, work, a ruthless world, social relationships, family, powerlessness the futility of human existence, and the meaning of life. This isn’t a story that will ever leave the reader. It’s haunting and told with realistic mundanity.
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